Ames Library Bookmobile featuring art work by Derek Anderson - Photos by Bob Kelly

Derek Anderson was one of my students. He was a wonderful student and I have followed his career for many years.  I used to call him "Crane" as a way of teasing him.  (He called me "Birdie" for J-Bird which was one of my nicknames.  

He is now a best selling author and artist  

Bestselling author/artist Derek Anderson drew the very first picture he can remember drawing when he was in kindergarten. It was a picture of the Easter Bunny. When he finished it, Derek took it down to the office and presented it to the principal of his school who hung it on the wall of his office for the rest of the school year. Derek's fate was sealed. From then on, he knew he was going to be an artist.

Ames Library has a new Bookmobile and someone decided to paint the new bookmobile using illustrations from Derek's book "Story County" -  Bob Kelly took these pictures of our new bookmobile and you can see the pictures here. There is a link at the bottom of the page so you can see (and order) books from Derek's Web Site there.

Derek Anderson is the New York Times bestselling artist of more than twenty books for children, six of which he wrote. Besides being named to Bank Street College's Best Books of the Year lists, many of his books have been published internationally and garnered awards including the CBC Children's Choice Award and the Parents' Choice Award. Derek can regularly be found speaking in schools, libraries and at conferences all over the United States. Link to the Web Site here.